Aged care nurses neglected: lobby group

Aged care nurses neglected: lobby group

An aged care lobby group says boosting the wages of hospital nurses will result in an even bigger shortage of nurses in the aged care sector.

The Queensland Nurses Union says an increase in salaries and an aggressive international recruitment campaign are needed to fill 14,000 hospital vacancies expected over the next seven years.

But Michael O’Neill from National Seniors Australia says fewer nurses will want to work in aged care if wages are increased in the acute care sector.

“There’s a narrow pool of medical professionals, but those pressures will attract people whose preference might have been to aged care to move into other areas of nursing, if the renumeration and the conditions and the salary and so forth are more attractive,” he said.